Team Hastings was out in force tonight, with around 50 others by the time 6:00pm came around. As I made my way around the parking lot, spreading good cheer, I discovered.....

....a new, unorthodox way of applying lube to one's chain. There must be an easier way and then I stumbled upon something that other than stealing all of Kristie's cookies or door dinging Marty's White Bike would be 3rd on the list of parking lot etiquette violations.....

...parking one's car in the lone shady spot on an evening where the heat index was around 100. Farmer Mike & French Climbing Machine appear miffed but otherwise refrained from saying anything. Now the shade dwellers were scattered to the wind and sun.

Jared, Andrew and Franz, who is temporarily driving a minivan.

John K, Michael, Rossi tandem, Rick and Alberto Contador await the start of the ride. Earlier in the day, two versions of tonight's route were distributed so after conducting a walkaround poll, the majority opted for the shorter route. I gathered eager group ride leaders and then sent off the Riveters, a fairly small group and then Scott Billman...

...led out the A group, of which there were around 20. Initially, I thought Scott had released us too early but ahead was not the Riveters, just another group exiting at about the same time. Included in our group were....

....Lori and Luke who did not want to have to dig too deep as they were racing in TN this weekend. We broke free of New Albany, racing eastward and reaching Alexandria with a 24.2 avg and then Granville at a 25mph avg. Then we turned back to the west via Raccoon Valley Road and into a head wind that seemed to tame the beast a bit. To that point our group had dropped only 1-2 people, another on the Moots Run climb but for the most part, everyone had hung in there as we turned left at York Road. I was hot, I was not looking forward to the York road rollers, I was convinced I would get hung out to dry there and I suspected the group was not going to make the 1-2 obligatory regroups so at 161, I hung a right and departed the route. Michael came along too. I finished with 30 miles and a 21.7 avg, the balance of the front A group finished with 21.8 for their 35 miles and the Riveters raced the route with a 23.8 avg.

During the drive home, the sun was creating some cool cloud fringe lighting.